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Everyone enjoys Google's tradition of modifying its logo in honor of various holidays and anniversaries, and today's simple and elegant tribute to Martin Luther King is no exception.

We just hope the Google kids paid King's estate handsomely for use of his likeness. Because while the world-dominating search folks are on record as caring very little about standard copyright protections (Google Print, anyone?), the King Estate is equally on record as perhaps overly vigorous copyright protectors (Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. v. CBS, anyone?).

But, then, this has long been our dream: A day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, copyright-holders and copyright-violators, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Hopefully that day will come very soon, because we're pretty sure we just violated the King Estate's copyright.

Google
Related:
 Publishers Sue Google Over Book Search Project [News.com]
Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., Inc., v. CBS, Inc. [Wikipedia]
The 'I Have a Dream' Speech [USConstitition.net]